What of a thesis suggesting that illustrative humor works best if related to contemporary reality? Really, the bit when Reagan waved his polyps at Carter might have changed the election: When people saw the incumbent struggling with an obstinate wheel is often marked as the turning point in the 1980 race; though others suggest the failure to produce a spark is emblematic of soft-spoken farmer’s presidential demise; still, in any case, if Adam tried to draw that scene today I doubt the young’n’s would understand quite what it referred to.

Adam, you’re not wrong. Language nazis are always trying to tell us we’re wrong, but common usage has made the word podium a synonym for lectern. See definition 3 at http://www.dictionary.com/browse/podium